
SABBATH-SCHOOL LESSON QUARTERLY.
15
baths and feasts; and, in the New Testament, baptism, the
Lord's Supper, and the ordinance of humility. But the origin
of the tithing system reaches back to the beginning, when it
became necessary because of the fall of man, and the promise
of hoe was offered to a lost world.
2. The tithing system did not originate with the He-
brew . From the
earliest times
the Lord claimed the tithe
as His, and this claim was recognized and honored. Abraham
paid tithes to Melchisedec, the priest to the Most High God.
Jacob, when at Bethel, as exile and wanderer, promised the
Lord, 'Of all that Thou shalt give me, I will surely give the
tenth unto Thee.' As the Israelites were about to be estab-
lished as a nation, the law of tithing was reaffirmed as one of.
the divinely ordained statutes, upon obedience to which their
prosperity depended."—Mrs.
E. G. White, in Review and
Herald, Sept. 10, 1889.
7i. In Heb. 5:6, Ch ist is said to be a "priest forever after
the order of Melchisedec." That order of priesthood existed
trom the fall of man till the introduction of the Levitical
order of priesthood; and
then
contemporaneously with the lat-
ter, and since the Levitical order ceased (at the cross), the
Saviour has been a priest according to the Melchisedec order,
ministering in behalf of mankind, and offering His own blood
before the Father, to make reconciliation for all who accept
Him as their substitute, regardless of the age of their so-
journ in the earth.
The tithing system was contemporaneous with the Mel-
chisedec priesthood,
prior
to the Levitical priesthood (see
Gen. 14:16-20; 28:11-22); it continued during the Levitical
order of priesthood (Lev. 27:28-33; Num. 18:21), and will
ever remain binding as long as the present order of Mel-
chisedec priesthood exists (Heb. 5:6; 7:1-9; 1 Cor. 9:11-14).
Therefore,
as the Melchisedec priesthood is contemporaneous
with the gospel,
and
the tithing system is contemporaneous
with the Melchisedec priesthood,
the tithing system is con-
temporaneotis with the gospel,
founded upon moral principles.
and is
co-existent with and inseparable from the gospel.
Another consideration, showing how ancient and general
the custom of tithing was, is the fact that it was well known
among the heathen. Cruden says: "The most barbarous
nations, and the heath
-
en Greeks and Romans, out of a prin-
ciple of religion common to all men, have often dedicated their
tithes to their gods. Some have made it a standing obliga-
tion; others have done it on particular occasions, and by the
The Son of God beggared Himself to enrich us.